North west match fishing scene

Menu

Category Archives: CUNNERIES

Post navigation

I have been to the cunneries fishery today as I stand in for someone on the team event and with the weather still being a bit up and down , I didn’t expect the fishing to be great but still expected a few bites because this is one of the few venues that has produced some decent weights no matter what the conditions where .On arrival to the fishery I met up with the rest of the team and unsurprisingly I was given the job of drawing , not sure why though lol but its safe to say that I didn’t disappoint with just the three end pegs today and my home was going to be peg one on the old canal ,this lake had fished well during the mid-week open so I was optimistic of getting a few bites, after settling in at my home for the next few hours i began plumbing up and I was a bit disappointed to find that it was no shallower than 4ft which i felt was going to be a problem , I also forgot to bring some bread for dobbin a novice mistake but in all honesty it hadn’t been working for me this winter .

Rigs for the day was going to be ;

4ft rig for fishing across at the side of the reed cover , i used a 4×12 Md slim float which had a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line and my hook length was the usual 010 garbo that had a size 20 gamma black hook attached .

4.5ft rig for fishing all along my right hand margin , i used a 4×12 Md slim float which had a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line and my hook length was the usual 010 garbo that had a size 20 gamma black hook attached .

5ft rig for fishing down the track at six meters towards my left , i used a 4×14 Md slim float which had a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line and my hook length was the usual 010 garbo that had a size 18 gamma black hook attached .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints of red and white maggots

1/2 pint of micros

1/2 pint black swim stim ground-bait

When the all in sounded I started tapping in six maggots at the side of the far bank reeds and it only took a couple of feeds before I had my first fish which was a small stockie , but then for the next hour despite altering the amount i was of bait i was putting in it was foul hook city although I did manage to get two in and i really needed to find some shallower water . I set up multiple new swims across but I couldn’t get away from the foul hookers and it was doing my head in to be honest , i even tried going shallower six-inch off the deck with my rig flicking it about to see if the f1s would take it as it fell but i never had a bite doing it so I put in a swim down my right hand margin but this just produced a small silver so that went up the bank for the time being but i kept throwing in a few maggots all through the match .

I chose to have an early look on my track line which i had fed a nugget of ground-bait+pellets at the start and i caught two big skimmers almost straight away but that soon faded so I reefed it and went back across, but half way through the match I was struggling as i had just six fish but thankfully they was all a good stamp and on looking around nobody was running away with it so i kept plodding along trying to put something in the net , i had another look on my top kit plus one swim towards my left were i had thrown in half a dozen maggots to try to make something happen , this produced a couple of fish and with ninety minutes of the match remaining I went long under the bridge and I managed to find a depth of 3ft at last , by trickling in a few maggots i managed to get four quick f1’s before the wind totally changed direction making presentation awkward and i was kicking myself for not going on it earlier but i didn’t expect the conditions to alter that much during the contest .

When the all out sounded I had managed a dozen decent fish which went 21lb but this was only good enough for 5th on the lake beating a few which was a bit disappointing, I felt that if I had fished a bit better making the correct decisions at the right times and I could have added at least another 10lb to my total but thing’s aren’t working out for me at the moment.

I have been to the cunneries fishery today to contest the open match and with nearly forty anglers fishing it was going to be split over the three of the lake’s , obviously a good draw would be an advantage and unsurprisingly I managed to pull out yet another end peg this time peg 26 on the S canal , but after all the recent cold rain and sleet going in over the past few days it was going to be hard work so i felt that it could be a good draw on the wrong day which was just my luck recently .

On settling in at my home for the next few hours and I set up the usual rigs, dobbin, track and 4ft.

3ft maggot rig , 4×10 Md maggie float which had an on the drop shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo hook length and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

4ft maggot rig , 4×12 Md maggie float which had an on the drop shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo hook length and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

Dobbin rig , 4×12 Md rugby ball patterned float which most of my shot under the float with two size 11 stotz spread along my 014 garbo main line and attached to it was a six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

When the all in sounded i began the match by dobbin bread towards the bridge in three-foot which was six-inch of the deck and i managed one quick f1 before I somehow managed to miss four bites on the trot, i just couldn’t work out how they wanted it despite changing depths + punch sizes and im really struggling with dobbin for some reason this winter.

Golden f1

With an hour gone and after seeing a few people catching f1’s by feeding I decided to follow suit and began trickling in a few maggots on my 4ft rig directly in front of me, after a couple of feeds I had another f1 before I foul hooked one which killed the swim and the fish were very shy which was understandably as the cold rain fell , i set up multiple new swims in the same depth all along the far bank and had the same problem every time as i would catch an early fish then struggle with foul hookers and my match was going pear-shaped , I then went two hours without a bite despite searching all over my peg and in desperation I kinder potted some micros in then fished maggot over the top on my original 4ft swim this got me two quick f1’s before the all out sounded , calling time on another frustrating match and for some reason this year im really struggling catching f1s which i can’t really get my head around because the last few years i have had some good results at this time of year when you need to scratch around for bites .

At the weigh in my six f1’s went just short of 9lb which was only good enough for half way on my two legs of the canal and the weights got gradually better the further you went to my right towards the car park so yet again i was on a good draw on the wrong day.

I went to the cunneries fishery yesterday to contest the pair’s match which i think is a really good idea and something that other venues should look at doing because it certainly breaks the monomity of matches in the winter months , my pair for the day was my old Adlington angling captain Jordan Cameron who I fished with on the last pair’s match here were we just missed out on a top three finish so understandably we was both looking forward to it , the weather during the week had been cold+wet and on arrival to the venue the water levels were quite high plus the bright conditions would make things a bit difficult today .Unsurprisingly I was in charge of picking the pegs and I put myself on end peg 38 s canal which I would normally have been happy with but just recently all the f1s had shown on the middle part of the canal , with my mate sitting on peg eight on the old canal so not a very good draw and i have not been having a great deal of luck in the draw bag recently .

On settling in at my home for the next few hours i set up my usual rigs ;

Channel rig towards my right were it was six-inch deeper and i used a 4×12 Md slim float Md slim float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

When the all in sounded I began the match by Dobbin bread all along the far bank reeds and for the first forty minutes I was fish less but I was getting all sorts of strange indications on the float which kept me interested , but despite changing depths+punch sizes i just couldn’t get a proper indication and it seemed there was a few fish in the area but I couldn’t work out how to catch them .With other anglers around me putting the odd fish in the net by feeding so I decided to follow suit and began trickling in a few maggots through a small kinder pot , I began in four foot towards my left about a foot away from the far bank cover and I managed a little run of fish but I must have over done it with the feed because I started foul hooking the odd fish , i tried three-foot rig which didn’t produce a bite so for the next couple of hours I set up multiple new swims in four-foot picking up a few f1’s from each but I didn’t think there was much in front of me as i had to work really hard for them , after yet another quiet spell I went long towards the left hand corner and worked all along the far bank without any success which was strange because i expected there to be a few f1s sat there out of the cold easterly wind .

I kept trying my channel swim which i had trickled in a few maggots all through the match but i never managed a bite from it so with an hour of the contest left I finally found a couple more f1’s at 13m towards the point of the island in three-foot and I felt that I might have missed a trick not searching in that area earlier because at this time of year the fish don’t come to the bait and you need to find them but fishing at this angle it made shipping back awkward , to be honest I expected the fish to be in the deeper water due to the conditions but I never had an indication over four-foot which just goes to show you can’t turn up at a match with a pre set plan in mind as you can be made to look a bit foolish .

At the all out I had managed to catch 15 f1’s which went 21lb and this put me third in the section getting proper smashed up by the pegs in the middle of the canal who both had around 50lb but it was still a good days fishing for this time of year , Jordan had also finished third agonisingly missing out on the section and lake win by just over a pound this left us on a disappointing six points for no good . Well done to my mate John Unsworth and Shaun Welsh on the win and all the other framers , both the Leigh tackle team’s did really well in the match today as well which is hopefully a good sign for future matches .

I have been to the cunneries fishery today for the last round of the team’s of three and we was languishing in a comfortable fifth place as long as we didn’t suffer a complete disaster then that’s where we would stay , which was a bit disappointing but with the class of anglers in some of the teams this time round it was always going to be hard improving on the fourth place we achieved on the spring league here . After last weeks storm Brian i hoped we had seen the back of the windy weather but we wasnt going to be so lucky because i woke on the morning of the match it was blowing a gale and on arrival to the venue the conditions had meant that a couple of the teams had decided not to attend which meant the organisers had to do a bit of reshuffling before the draw could take place .

When things had finally got sorted it was time for the captains to queue up to have a dip in the bag of doom and when ours returned I was given peg six on the old canal which I didn’t mind as it meant that I had finally managed to get away from the forty pegs on the s canal , on settling in at my home for the next few hours i was half way along the straight with your back towards Hawk pool and i had a lovely reed lined far bank about eleven meters away but as the wind was blowing strongly from left to right and it was forecast to get worse as the match progressed so fishing across was out of the question.

I decided to set up ;

Three foot rig which was about a meter away from the near bank towards my left hand empty platform and i used a 4×12 roob float which had an inch spread bulk starting above my four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Four foot rig for at the bottom of the near slope and i used a 4×14 roob float which had an inch spread bulk starting above my four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Channel rig in the deepest water i could find which was only five foot deep and i would be using maggots on this swim i decided to use a 4×12 Md maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern and my main was the usual 016 garbo with a six-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Bait for the day was ;

Two pints of red maggots

Two pints of soaked micros

One pint of soaked 4mm pellets

Small tub of 4mm expanders .

When the all in sounded i started my match on my 4ft rig with pellets along my left hand margin and it took a couple of feeds of micros through a sprinkle pot before i started getting indications this only produced some skimmers and an f1 in the first hour but it just didn’t seem right as it wasnt really getting any better , i tried my 3ft rig to see if the f1s would feed better at this depth but i struggled to attract a bite on this swim . I had a look on my across line when the wind eased and i caught a few f1s doing that although i didn’t really fancy fighting with the wind all match , half way through the contest i only had eight f1s in the net which wasnt great but i felt that i was just in front along my side of the bank but there seemed to be a lot more being caught opposite me .

I had fed my channel swim with maggots since the match started and a switch to my six meter swim worked wonders for me as i began putting some fish in the net at long last but i didn’t quite get my feeding correct because among the very delicate indications I managed to catch the odd f1 and skimmer right up to the all out although I did have to alter the way i laid my rig in to get a more positive bite , i did foul hook a few fish today because I needed to lay some line on the deck to help keep my rig still which was always going to be a bit of a risk .

At the all out I had managed twenty f1s plus a couple of decent skimmers which went 44lb this put me fourth on the lake which i was a bit disappointed with as I felt if i had done things a little bit differently a low 50lb weight was more than possible which would have got me in the top two on the lake , as a team we ended up with 18 points on the day but the challengers around us had done worse so we ended up fifth in the league overall which was reasonable with the standard of anglers contesting the event, well done to the framing teams and section winners today.

Today i was back at the Cunneries fishery for the penultimate round of the Autumn teams of three and as the Daiwa adlington team was languishing in mid table we could do with a good performance to move us up the league although in all honesty it would be very hard to make up ground on the top four , during the week leading up to the contest we had some torrential down pours and it was forecast to be continuous rain today as well , this i felt would have an impact on the weights and i thought that just 60lb could be enough for good section points that was probably only thirty-five stamp f1s which should be achievable on most of the pegs on the S canal , the Old canal was also in the match today after it had been closed for over a month and on Thursdays match it had thrown up some really good weights but that was a rover when just four anglers decided to go on it today every other peg would be which would make things a bit tougher .

After my short drive to the fishery i grabbed a buttie before having a chat with a few of the other anglers in attendance and so far the rain had held off but there was quite a brisk wind blowing towards the car park , as i had decided to stand down from the Daiwa Adlington squad after the league had finished i decided to let the other team members do a bit of the work so i relegated myself from doing the drawing duties , but it didn’t really make much difference as the captain still brought back our usual end peg this time it was in the shape of 15 S canal with the wind blowing into it and it looked really good , the only trouble was i wasnt going to be sitting on it as my home for the day was 40 S canal only a couple away from the last round where i struggled to catch a great deal so i expected more of the same this time .

When i arrived to my peg which was half way along the fourth leg i had the usual reed lined margin + far bank plus a nice mud bank and an empty platform either side of me , so at least i had a bit of room and i decided to set up ;

Top kit plus one at an angle towards my left at the bottom of the near slope and i used a 4×12 Md maggie float with a staggered bulk shotting pattern spread along the bottom third of my rig starting above my six-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size 18 guru LWG hook attached with a micro bait band .

Three foot rig for in front of the far bank reeds and five meters along my left hand margin at the far side of the weed bed , i used a 4×12 Md pellet float with an inch spread bulk shotting pattern starting above my four-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size 18 Guru pellet hook attached to it .

Channel rig six meters towards my right + left this would allow me to try a couple of different feeding patterns and i used a 4×12 Md maggie float which had a staggered bulk shotting pattern spread along the bottom third of my rig starting above my six-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size 18 guru LWG hook attached .

Bait for the day was ;

3 pints of red+white maggots

2 pints of micros

2 pints of 4mm pellets

small tub of 4mm expanders

I began the match on my top three and tapped in a few 4mm pellets before flicking my rig out so that it fell up the near slope even though i kept throwing in some pellets and laying my float among it , it took an age for me to get an indication and i only managed four f1s in the first which wasnt the best of starts maybe hard pellets are on their way out now that the water has started to go a bit cooler . I switched to my across swim it took a couple of feeds of micros through a kinder pot before i got a response and for the next hour i had a good run of fish the only trouble was they were just stockies+skimmers not what i wanted to be catching if i required some good points , despite trying all sorts of different feeding patterns and moving swims i just couldn’t get through the small stuff .

I decided to give my channel swim a try which was my best area on the last round and i fed one with a small pot of maggots the other with a kinder pot of micros , by rotating between the two i managed to pick up the odd stamp f1 but never really managed a run of fish from either it just seemed there wasnt many in the area and to be honest if i had spent the rest of the match here i would have ended up with better section points but i felt that i wasnt catching quick enough so i had a look down my long left hand margin , i clumped in some micros through a large kinder pot and lowered my rig in over the top of it and i managed three big f1s straight away i hoped that i could put a run together but it never really got going . A switch back to my channel swim got me a few more fish and i spent the remainder of the match alternating between them both picking up f1s from each , soft pellets was by far the best bait for me today which was strange because others that i had talked to did better on maggots .

When the all out sounded i ended up with 17 f1s plus a few skimmers+stockies and this went a disappointing 35lb which although beat the anglers either side of me was only good enough for 7th in my ten peg section although if i had managed another 5lb which was possible i would have had a lot better points , on meeting up with the other lads in the team they had struggled just like me so we was all a bit down with the result and as it turned out we ended up joint fifth on the day which is a lot better than we thought because i feared we might have even been last .

Theres a few weeks break before the next round so hopefully the weather might have settled down a bit and the fishing has improved , before that im off to Partridge lakes for the first time in ages and then back to Heronbrook fishery for the second round of the winter league so a busy but enjoyable weekend ahead .

Today i have been to the cunneries fishery for the teams of three where we was lying in fourth place so needed a good result if we wanted to move up the table and after being at Weston pools for the last few weeks , I was a bit rusty with my F1 fishing and to be honest i felt it would have been better for another squad member to take my place if they had attended the opens in between rounds , but anyway it was the usual team for the match and on the morning of the contest the weather didn’t look to bad with it being overcast with a light breeze but we was due to get even more rain during the day because recently it hasn’t stopped raining .

On arriving at the fishery i booked on to the match and grabbed something to eat before having a chat with a few of the other anglers and we all agreed that it could be tough going today apart from those pegs opposite end to the car-park which had the benefit of a ripple . It soon came round for the draw and yet again I dipped in the bag of doom for the team it’s not as if im a draw bag or something , i pulled out my usual end peg then a couple of poor pegs China was on peg one s canal, John was on peg fifteen hawk and I was on peg forty-four s canal .

On arriving at my home for the next few hours which was in the middle of the fourth leg of the s canal i had the usual reed lined far bank + margins and in light of the recent weather conditions i chose to set up my rigs slightly deeper than i usually do on here i set up ;

Top kit plus one which was positioned at the bottom of the near slope and i used a 4×12 roob styled float which had an inch spread bulk starting above the 010 garbo hook length , my main line was the usual 014 garbo and hook was a size twenty guru lwg which had a micro bait band attached .

Three foot rig for fishing in front of the far bank reeds and my right hand empty platform , i used a 4×12 MD maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a four-inch 010 garbo hook length attached .

I also set up a track swim at six meter to my right and left i felt that this was enough distance apart to allow me to try different feeding patterns , i used a 4×12 Md maggie float with a bulk plus two dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a four-inch 010 garbo hook length attached .

Bait for the day was ;

3 pints of red and white maggots

1 pint of bagem moist feed pellets in 1mm

1 pint of bagem 4mm feed pellets

When the all in sounded i started my match on hard pellets on my top kit plus one and by throwing a couple of 4mm pellets around my float every couple of minutes i managed six f1s in the first hour before it died on me, I then swapped to my across line with maggots feeding through a small kinder pot this just produced the odd fish and despite trying a few different things it never really got going , I even switched it to pellets which didn’t improve things and i was scratching my head on what i should try next but at least i wasnt the only person struggling because i hadn’t seen many fish come out so far .

With the last ninety minutes of the match fast approaching I decided to spent it down the track i fed one swim with micros the other with maggots just so i could see which one if any of them worked the best , i started on my right hand maggot line and i kept laying my rig in different ways to help get me a few bites but it was proper hard going , i finally began picking up the odd fish but the only trouble was I kept losing fish on the strike and despite trying lots of different things nothing really improved it was as if the f1s were coming into the swim but backing away from the feed .

When i switched to my left hand pellet swim and for some reason i just kept missing bites so i decided to try double maggot on the hook over the top of it , this finally produced a run of fish before i was back losing fish and it was leaving me a bit frustrated .At the all out I ended up with a disappointing 34lb which was only good enough for me to win my money section but ended up 7th on the lake, I definitely had enough fish in front of me to challenge for the top three as i lost nearly fifteen f1s during the match and a low 50lb was needed to get into the frame but lack of recent venue knowledge cost me , the other lads didn’t do much better as we ended up fifth on the day and we are now ten points behind third place with just a couple of rounds left i think its going to be hard to pull the deficit back .

Anyway off to Herronbrook fishery tomorrow for the teams of four let’s hope I do better on there.

Today i was back at the cunneries fishery as a guest with the Stockton heath lads and I don’t usually do club matches but as it was on Hawk pool I made an exception because it will be in both of the teams of three league’s I am doing on here , have only fished it once before so needed to try a few things out and like they say practice makes perfect .At the draw I had the last ball in the bag ending up with peg 18 which i was very happy with as it is in a good area to be in and I had a bit of room , so i fancied it for a few fish even though we have had a lot of rain in the past few days and was due a bit more during the day .

I decided to set up ;

2ft rig for margin + across and i used a 4×12 MD pellet float with a spread bulk along my 014 garbo main line starting above my four-inch 010 garbo hook length .

4ft rig at top kit plus one with maggots and i used a 4×10 MD maggot float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern , with the usual 014 garbo main line and six-inch of 010 garbo hook length .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints of red+white maggots

1 pint of bagem soaked micros

1 pint of bagem 4mm pellets

1 pint of bagem crushed expander ground-bait

On the all in I started at the bottom of the near slope feeding maggots through my hand and I had a great run of ide all though they was averaging six-ounce a piece , my constant loose feeding had brought them up off the deck and there was a few swirls on top , I was missing a few bites and i didn’t expect to be catching shallow today so I changed to kinder potting the maggots in which brought the fish back to the deck. In the first hour I caught about 18lb of ide plus a few barbel and It was all going really well i even picked up a couple of f1s+carp , but i was using today as a learning exercise plus I was running out of maggots so I decided to change it to pellets to try to get some more f1’s into the swim and i put in half a cupping kit full of micros+crushed expander.

While it settled I went across to the far bank and picked the spot where i had earlier plumbed up then taped in half a dozen micros before lowering my rig in over the top , i caught a couple of quick f1s before things got a bit difficult because for the next two hours i had a nightmare with liners and foul hookers, I tried setting up new swims all along the far bank and i would get a couple of early fish before it went tits up as i just couldn’t get them to settle no matter what depth I went into and I put next to nothing in the net so I went back on my near line while I had a review on what to do next .

I started by taping in some micros then lowered my rig in over the top and i soon started catching some carp+f1s but the bites were very finicky more like winter fishing when using pellets , I had to be really careful with the amount of feed i began putting in because the bottom would fizz up quite badly if I over did it and I decided to change it back to maggots because I was catching ide a lot quicker , i set up a new swim for pellets I slightly deeper water towards my right at six meters but this time kicked it off with a nugget of crushed expander and some micros .

For the rest of the match I rotated between them both catching a few from my pellet swim and when it began fizzing up i went go onto my maggot swim which was by far the best line but i didn’t have enough bait to do it justice , at the all out I had 54lb which consisted of 22lb of ide+barbel the rest carp + f1’s which was just enough for the match win but more importantly I learned a great deal and maybe i had suffered a bit with having too much room because at times i had a lot of fish in my peg but at least i have more of an idea if i ever draw on the lake again .